@JustDontGetIt

I’m old school. I’m anti-establishment. Hell, I may even be blasphemous, but I can’t keep quiet any longer.

I am a Twitter-hater.

Really though, I just don’t get it. What’s the point of this micro-blogging website? Is it a way to keep in touch with technologically savvy family and friends you don’t have time to call? Or text? Or, God forbid, have a conversation with in real life, tête-à-tête?

Is it a way to be a cyber-groupie for actors and rappers and athletes that you’ll probably never meet, but can prove your devotion to by joining 100,000 other people just like you in stalking their every move?

Or is it simply a medium through which the bored and the egotistical can publish their hourly thoughts and hope that someone, anyone, tweets back @ them?

Maybe I don’t think highly enough of myself and what goes on inside my head.

JustDontGetIt tweets, “It finally feels like fall in Durham. I am happy. @RandomFriend, aren’t you happy it’s not 90 degrees anymore?”

Chances are RandomFriend already realizes that the weather is cooler and that I’ll probably run into them on campus sometime today. Why would I tweet this out? Does RandomFriend have to respond? If not, will RandomFriend at least mention me, JustDontGetIt, in one of his/her upcoming ramblings?

Sure, Twitter fans say it’s a good way to keep in touch with busy friends, but as of late, many have admitted (yes, through various blogs and other digital interfaces) to feeling “too connected.” It’s an argument that our generation has faced ever since the emergence of AIM and Facebook and smart phones with full QWERTY keyboards, but I think it’s still valid, particularly when Twitter flies (like a bird!) into the mix.

This hyper-awareness of our peers and their feelings and doings now has a name—ambient awareness. Social scientists use this term to describe the new level of social awareness propagated by the constant contact with one’s friends and colleagues via social networking platforms.

New York Times Magazine writer Clive Thompson jumped on the JustDontGetIt bandwagon when he wrote in September 2008, “For many people... the idea of describing your blow-by-blow activities in such detail is absurd. Why would you subject your friends to your daily minutiae?... The growth of ambient intimacy can seem like modern narcissism taken to a new, supermetabolic extreme—the ultimate expression of a generation of celebrity-addled youths who believe their every utterance is fascinating and ought to be shared with the world.”

So, the way I see it, we’ve all taken on only-child tendencies, constantly telling the cyber world to “look at me... I’m relevant!”

Twitter, however, has done quite well despite disbelievers like Mr. Thompson and myself. Jack Dorsey, creator and founder of twitter.com, and his 190 million monthly users have created a colossal online project in four short years worth more than $150 million. It was ranked one of the 15 most visited websites worldwide by Alexa Web Information Service’s web traffic analysis.

According to the geniuses at Wikipedia, Twitter revolves around the principle of followers, and the more you have, the more popular you’ll be. Here, I’ll leave you with a final thought.

Didn’t your parents always tell you not to be a follower? That popularity isn’t important? And that the universe doesn’t revolve around you? Maybe I’m just afraid that if I created a Twitter account and starting tweeting to the world, I’d have no followers and people would see me for what I truly am: a cynic with a column that allows me to publish pointless babble in way more than 140 characters.

Molly Lester is a Trinity senior. Her column runs every other Tuesday.